7 takeaways from the Patriots’ second half surge win over the Browns

A lot was made this week of the New England Patriots facing a Cleveland Browns defense that is among the very best in the league. Would the Patriots continue their early offensive success against a tougher test?

It took some feeling out, but eventually the Patriots broke through. They put up 422 yards - 73 more than the next-closest team against Cleveland this year - in a 32-13 win on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

Most of that production came in the second half, as the Patriots once again pulled away coming out of the locker room. That's become a bit of a trend this year, so let's start there for today's takeaways...

Early on, it looked like this could be a close, grind-it-out game. The Patriots got a field goal on their opening drive, but it felt like they left points on the table when they stalled in the red zone. In turn the Browns' offense - one of the worst in the league this year at creating big plays - quickly moved down the field for a touchdown on its opening drive.

From there the teams battled for field position, with the Patriots knocking through a couple of field goals. A sloppy sequence at the end of the first half was saved by a 21-yard connection between Drake Maye and Kayshon Boutte that allowed them to go into the locker room with a field goal and 9-7 lead.

All season the Patriots have been a dominant third-quarter team, and that showed again in this one. They out-gained the Browns 164 yards to 33, and outscored them 21-0 in the frame, completely taking over control of the game.

That included a masterful opening drive from offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, in which he threw a little bit of everything at the Browns. Between tosses, speed options, play action boot legs, trick plays, and more the Patriots went 77 yards in seven plays before Hunter Henry capped the drive with a seven-yard touchdown catch (on National Tight End Day no less).

"Taking advantage of our opportunities, turning drives into touchdowns, hitting some X plays and not settling for field goals like we did in the first half," head coach Mike Vrabel said after the game when asked about the change. "Sometimes it's going to be like that. A lot of times in this league it's going to be like that. We've had other games. You could ask me about starting fast. Again, we'll try to continue to work on it."

His message to the team at halftime?

"We were winning the game. So I just told them keep playing," Vrabel shared postgame. "I don't know how many yards we had. Those are stats. I look at the scoreboard, and we were winning."

Going back to Week 2, the Patriots have outscored opponents 60-13 in the third quarter of games. They will need to start stronger when they start facing tougher competition, but their ability to adjust at halftime and take games over is valuable.

While it was another decisive win on the scoreboard, there was still plenty from this game the Patriots will need to clean up moving forward. Some of that showed up in the first half, but a few issues even continued into the second as the team was rolling. Ultimately these miscues didn't impact the outcome of the game. But, they are good teaching moments that the Patriots will need to clean up when they face better opponents.

Penalties were once again a problem. It wasn't so much the total number - they were flagged seven times - but the situations and nature of the penalties themselves.

That included two false starts on 3rd downs. One was by Mike Onwenu on a 3rd & 1 that resulted in a three-and-out, and another by Hunter Henry in the final minute of the first half that temporality took the team out of field goal range. Another avoidable penalty came on the opening kickoff of the second half, when Marte Mapu was called for an illegal formation.

Later in the game, there were more special teams miscues. Bryce Baringer had a bad shank in the fourth quarter deep in his own end, resulting in a 15-yard punt that set the Browns up just outside of the red zone. At this point the game was more or less over, but it still allowed the Browns to keep the door open a bit with a quick touchdown.

Later, the Patriots allowed an onside kick to be recovered by the Browns, gifting Cleveland another possession. That safety itself was set up by another negative play, as rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson had the ball punched out running towards the goal line. Speaking of Henderson...

That fumble was a part of Henderson's day, but not the whole story. After a few weeks of struggling to find room to run, Henderson only saw two touches last week. This week, he bounced back in a big way.

Henderson carried the ball 10 times on Sunday, rushing for a season-high 75 yards. He seemed much more decisive with the ball, and his pacing, patience, and field vision all looked much improved. Against the best run defense in the NFL, he had his best game of the year.

It may have helped that the Patriots seemed to do more to get Henderson on the outside and in space, working in more tosses than in recent weeks. Still, one of Henderson's best runs was up the middle - a 27-yard run between right guard and right tackle on that third quarter opening drive.

Although his production jumped, the Patriots didn't need to force Henderson on the field to get him going. Rhamondre Stevenson still was the lead back in terms of usage, playing 50 snaps to Henderson's 14. Just about every time Henderson was on the field, he got the ball. It will be interesting to see if/how the late fumble impacts his usage next week.

As for Stevenson his production took a bit of a step back, with 14 carries, for 34 yards (he also caught a 15-yard pass). The Patriots still haven't gotten both of their backs going in the same game, but big picture the run game is making progress. For the second week in a row the Patriots ran for over 170 yards and over 5.0 yards per carry (excluding kneeldowns), this time doing so against an elite run defense.

Facing a ton of pressure (we'll get to that in a minute), Drake Maye still found ways to make plays. He completed 18 of his 24 passes in this one for 282 yards and three touchdowns.

One of the most impressive things about Maye's play this season that hasn't been talked about as much is, unlike many young quarterbacks, he's not narrowing his targets down to only a couple of receivers. He certainly has his favorites but he's spread the ball out when needed, and did so on Sunday.

This game was Mack Hollins' time to shine. Hollins led the team with seven catches for 89 yards, both season highs.

Still, Maye did hit more familiar targets too. His 39-yard touchdown to Kayshon Boutte up the left sideline was probably his throw of the day. He also got Stefon Diggs his first touchdown with the Patriots, on a textbook McDaniels quick screen on the goal line.

There was one shaky moment for Maye, which came in the second quarter when the Patriots were struggling to move the ball. After initially stepping up to avoid pressure Maye tried to hit a receiver over the middle on a drag over the middle but completely missed Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger, throwing it right to him for his first interception in five weeks. It was the kind of turnover that was much more common for Maye last year, but credit to him he bounced back and played a clean game from there on out.

The Patriots' offensive success was not for lack of trying by Browns defensive end Myles Garrett. A future first-ballot Hall of Famer Garrett dominated in the trenches, picking up a career-high five sacks.

Garrett moved all over the defense, and pretty much every Patriots lineman had to face him at some point in the game. In particular though the Browns mainly had him on the right side of the defense, giving both rookies on the left side of the Patriots' line problems, even as the Patriots sent help with tight ends and running backs.

"He’s a really good player,” left tackle Will Campbell told reporters after the game. “He beat me a few times. It’s just part of the game. He gets paid a lot of money. He got me a couple times. I had to keep coming back and keep fighting. I’m just glad we got the win."

Luckily for the Patriots' offensive line, they won't face a player of Garrett's caliber again this season. Going up against him this week though proved to be a good reality check for a unit that overall has been solid to start the year.

As for Garrett, after signing an extension in Cleveland this offseason he's likely tied to the Browns long-term. That means we likely won't get to see one of the league's best talents in a big game any time soon, and dominant performances like this one may continue to come in losing efforts - another example of football being the ultimate team game.

It was expected for the Patriots' defense to play well against an anemic Browns offense. After that first drive of the game they did just that, allowing just 3.1 yards per play the rest of the game. The only other points the Browns got in the game came off of the shanked punt. They need to clean up the slow starts, but once again they recovered.

The one thing that Cleveland had done well was not turn the ball over. Since Dillon Gabriel became the starter, the Browns had not turned the ball over once.

That changed on Sunday, as the Patriots forced a couple of interceptions. On one, the Patriots' front got pressure as a whole and forced Gabriel to rush a throw over the middle, which was picked off by Robert Spillane as part of the Patriots' third quarter surge. That was Spillane's second pick of the year and he now has seven since the start of the 2023 season - the second-most by a linebacker in the NFL in that span.

On the next drive Gabriel tried a rare deep shot, but Jaylinn Hawkins made an unbelievable one-handed over-the-shoulder grab for his second pick of the year. That was the highlight of the day for Hawkins, who played well after missing two games with a hamstring injury. He had five tackles, with the interception and a run stuff plus a few other tight coverage plays.

It's happened kind of quietly, but Andy Borregales looks to have found his rhythm after a shaky start to the season. He delivered again on Sunday hitting first half field goals from 36, 32, and 42 yards to account for the Patriots' only points of the first half and keep them in the game before they broke out in the second half. He later added three extra points. His 12 points on the day marked a new career-high.

On kickoffs, he helped the coverage out. The Patriots had one of their best kick coverage days of the year, with the Browns averaging just 21.8 yards per kick return without a return longer than 24 yards.

For the season, Borregales is now 12-of-13 on field goals, and 21-of-23 on extra points.